


The Art of Dreaming

by pcytobens



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: (based off of NCTmentary and Carlos Casteneda's The Art of Dreaming), Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Dreams, Dreamsharing, Human Experimentation, Lucid Dreaming, M/M, Medical Experimentation, Near Future, mutual dreams, rating will most likely be bumped up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-12 20:03:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20570096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pcytobens/pseuds/pcytobens
Summary: All twenty-one subjects knew what they were signing up for. None of them knew what was coming."We are not alone in this world. There are other worlds available to dreamers, total worlds. From those other total worlds, energetic entities sometimes come to us. You can't explain dreaming by way of things you know or suspect you know." –Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming





	The Art of Dreaming

**Author's Note:**

> There's going to be a lot that happens in this fic. It's pretty deep and goes into a lot of heavy stuff. It has a lot of sci-fi/medical terminology that I will do my best to use properly. If you are interested by dreams/sharing dreams, this is the fic for you. I've always wanted to write a fic like this, so here I am, writing it.
> 
> Trigger Warnings:
> 
> -Violence,  
-Underage joining of experiment,  
-Human experimentation,  
-Use of illicit drugs,  
-Non-life threatening drug overdose,  
-Life-threatening drug overdose,  
-Implication/mention of suicide,  
-PTSD,  
-Depression,  
-Anxiety/panic attacks,  
-Disturbing imagery from dreams
> 
> Also, note:
> 
> Everyone's ages are the same as they were at the debut of NCT (2016).
> 
> [Inspired by the NCTmentary series for NCT2018 promotions!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrTdkaklKqg)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It hasn't been betaed or edited. This is /raw/ writing.

Mark walked into the university building, holding the waiver with sweaty hands. His mom and dad were  _ so _ going to kill him, but they were all the way in Canada and he was here with his uncle. Besides, it wasn’t Mark’s fault the experiment wanted 17 to 30 year olds to participate. 

His birthday was going to be in a week, he was basically seventeen. So, he technically wasn’t breaking the rules. 

Yeah, the experiment took up the rest of the summer and his second year of high school, but it was for science. He went to a science driven school, of course he was going to participate. This was sure to get him that damn award that everyone got except him.

Yeah, it was petty to participate in a sleep experiment for a stupid trophy his school probably got from a dollar store. Mark didn’t care. That trophy meant everything to him.

He looked back down at his phone and followed the directions. Down the stairs, take two rights, one left and the third door on the left. No one crossed his path on the way down to the laboratory. The way down to the designated room fit a horror movie. The lights were bright enough for Mark to see, but not enough for him to feel comfortable. They flickered on and off, injecting liquid fear into his bloodstream. Graduation photos lined the walls, stethoscopes wrapped around the graduated students necks. 

He took the two rights, one left and walked up to the third door on the left.Wiping his hands on his pants, he unfolded the waiver and the information sheet. They would never know he forged his mother’s signature. He put the contact number to his aunt in Canada, they would never know the difference; he barely moved to Korea a year ago. His aunt Gynugmi would actually encourage him to do this. Bless his aunt for being a neuroscientist. 

He stood in front of the door labeled ‘Implantation and Inducement of Mutual Dreams Testing Unit  _ (2IMDTU _ )’ and checked his sheet again. Yep, right room. He knocked on the door twice and took in a deep breath. The door opened and a middle aged man answered the door. He opened it only wide enough for his head to peek through. Mark could see the beginning of a lab coat draped over his body, clean and pristine.

“Can I help you?” He asked, his gaze scanning over Mark. His thick, black glasses were perched high on his nose and his hair was greased back with either gel or greasy hair. The lighting made it too hard for Mark to tell. 

Mark held up his sheet, “Oh, yeah. Uh, I’m here for the...Implantation and Inducement of Mutual Dre —woah,  _ dude _ !” The man’s eyes lit up and he threw open the door. A bony hand grabbed Mark by the shoulder and yanked him into the room. It was still dimly lit, besides the lamp that barely illuminated the corner of the room. Mark squinted at the name embroidered on the breast of the lab coat: Dr. Ahn Chilhyun,  _ Lead Researcher _ . 

Chilhyun tore the sheets from Mark’s hands, skimming over them. He looked back at Mark and shrugged his shoulders, muttering something indecipherable. He scanned the sheet on a machine and threw the physical sheet onto a desk shoved against the wall that was filled with other sheets of paper. He typed a few things into the scanner and when it beeped, he turned his attention back to Mark. He grabbed his shoulder again and led them to the only door in the room. He dug his fingers into his shoulder painfully and Mark let out a cry of pain. The doctor immediately softened his grip and gave Mark a silent apology.

The doctor opened the door at the end of the room and walked through it, guiding Mark with him. Mark blinked a few times, his eyes adjusting to the sudden light change. His vision went white for a moment before clearing up. Fluorescent lights lined the seam of the ceiling and floor, leaving nothing in the dark. The white walls and floors were spotless, Mark could almost see his face in the tiles.

“The experiment is already over the limit of fifteen people we put initially and the deadline date was three weeks ago, but you know the saying ‘the more the more the merrier?’ It fits here,” the man rambled, keeping his soft but firm grip on Mark’s shoulder. The man led Mark down a hallway (how big was this room?) filled with dozens transparent doors that seemed to go on forever. The doors were all on the left side of the hallway, leaving the right wall bare. 

All the doors had names and ID codes written on them, written in several languages. Most of them were Korean, but a handful of Chinese names and English names were thrown in. A few of the Korean and Chinese names had English next to them, along with a few names translated into Korean. Wall files were next to every door, some empty and some filled to the brim with information.

Mark peeked into some of the room, seeing men hooked up to IV’s, a body function monitor and a screen. A few of the screens displayed abstract worlds and vivid colours, others were staticky with video footage he could barely watch or were completely off. A few of the subjects were completely conscious, eating and talking to people in lab coats or on the phone. One of the test subjects with pink-tinted blonde waved at him with a bright and toothy smile. Mark waved back, curving his lips.

A few more doors and they finally stopped in front of an empty room and Chilhyun opened the door with a keycard. Mark walked in and sat himself the medical chair. Chilhyun tapped the wall across from Mark and it lit up, displaying a computer that spanned the whole wall. Mark watched in awe as the doctor pulled up Mark’s information. The doctor pulled the cap off a marker and started to make notes on the clear board.

“Before we start, I have to welcome you to our experiment and go over some parameters. You do know this is an eight month experiment from August 10th to May 11th, which is one-third of a year. You will be living here with no contact with the physical and outside world—except for the nurses and other doctors, save for the occasional phone calls and video chats to family. 

“You agreed to these terms when you signed the waiver and registration documents. After I log you in as a confirmed subject, you yourself can’t revoke your form for legal reasons. The only way you can revoke your status is if one of your emergency contacts comes and gets you themselves or you enter a state of medical emergency where you are about to die. Do you understand this?” Doctor Chilhyun looked at him with wishful eyes. The man looked tired and worn down by his job.

Mark nodded. He made sure to read over the form several times before he even decided to join the experiment. Some of the terms were shifty but everything else was normal.

“Awesome, welcome to  _ 2IMDTU _ ! I’m Doctor Ahn, but you can call me Chilhyun or Kangta. We will be getting to know each other quite well, so please think of me as a friend instead of a doctor. I beg of you to not use honorifics with me, it makes me feel old. On that note, can you confirm you are Lee Minhyung?” Chilhyun asked, scribbling something across the board.

“Yeah, I go by Mark, though.” 

Chilhyun looked back and nodded, “Noted, thank you, Mark. A lot of the other subjects use a secondary English name, as well. We want you to be as comfortable as you possibly can, so we will document that as your preferred name and for your door.”

“Mark is actually my birth name, Minhyung is just my Korean name. I didn’t know if I should have used my birth name name since this is a Korean experiment.” 

“I see, thank you for that. Your birthplaces says Toronto, that explains a lot. When is your birthday?”

“July 25th, 1999.” His actual birthday was August 2nd, 1999, but Doctor Chilhyun didn’t need to ever know that.

“Ah, another minor. We have about a dozen other minors participating as well.” 

“Really? Am I the youngest?” Mark didn’t have any issue being the youngest, he just wanted someone to boss around.

“No, one other turns seventeen two days before the experiment starts. His name is Xiao Dejun, one of our several Chinese participants.”

Nice, he’s got someone to call him hyung and to boss around.

Chilhyun continued, “Do you take any medications that can cause complications with the experiment, like dependence on opioids, take diazepam for seizures, any sort of asthma medication for asthma attacks or sedatives for insomnia?”

“No, I don’t take medication except for when I get a headache and it’s usually Tylenol.”

“Excellent. Do you suffer from a sleeping disorder, like obstructive or non-obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, bruxism, nocturnal enuresis, nocturnal epilepsy, irregular sleeping patterns, exploding head syndrome, idiopathic hypersomnia, or Kleine-Levin syndrome?” Chilhyun looked back at him with an innocent look. The minor’s jaw hung open with awe. That was a lot of disorders Mark didn’t even know existed. Exploding head syndrome sounded frightening and idiopathic hypersomnia sounded like a garage band name.

Mark shook his head, “No? I sometimes talk in my sleep or get up to use the bathroom. I don’t know if that helps.” 

“Somniloquy is quite common in the general population, it shouldn’t be an issue. If you have to get up regularly to relieve yourself, it may be an issue but not one we can’t deal with. It’s better than one of the other subjects who still wets themselves.” Chilhyun finished writing and placed the cap back on the marker.

He pulled a rolling stool from beside the chair and pulled out a cuff connected to a sphygmomanometer. He ripped the velcro and wrapped the cuff around Mark’s left arm. The doctor pressed a button and the machine started to inflate the cuff, squeezing the younger’s arm. Mark winced when the pressure plateaued and the pulse ached deep into his arm. The buzzing noise stopped and the machine deflated. Mark nearly sighed in relief when the cuff came off.

“ _ 125-over-79 _ , not bad. You’re pretty healthy, as far as I can tell. You’re young, so we shouldn’t have an issue with you having a heart attack in your sleep.” The doctor pushed himself over to the computer and typed in Mark’s blood pressure. Mark hoped to God he wasn’t going to have a heart attack in his sleep. His mom would revive him and then kill him  _ again _ .

With a wave of his hand, the projected screen collapsed. Chilhyun put the stool away and stood next to Mark.

“All the basic information we need is done for right now. In the next two weeks, we will be doing some medical tests like cognitive abilities, taking blood and other things. It’s going to be a busy while until the experiment starts. It’s going to be really tough on you,” Chilhyun explained, placing his hand on his shoulder. Mark expected him to squeeze it tight, but his fingers feathered against the fabric of his shirt.

“Do what you have to. I’m really excited for this.” Mark raved, reassuring the doctor. The tension held between the wrinkles of Chilhyun’s eyebrows released and he smiled.

“Good. I’ll leave you be. If you need anything, press the button next to the door and a nurse will attend to you.” Chilhyun patted his shoulder and left the room.

Mark exhaled and tilted his head back. He so hoped his mom wasn’t going to disown him.

  
  


Chilhyun wasn’t lying or exaggerating in the slightest. Mark semi-wished he was after he left the room, but he found the lead researcher to be devastatingly honest and blunt. It was an annoying quality at worst, an admirable trait at its best.

The two weeks were jam-packed with several medical and mental tests, along with physical training. For a dream experiment, he wasn’t expecting to run five kilometers on the first day. When he stopped to catch his breath for the first time about a kilometer in, they made him start all over. After five times of starting over and barely making it back to the starting line, he threw up everywhere and nearly passed out. He didn’t deserve it, but Chilhyun and the other doctor’s gave him a pass. Mark was given some basic medical checkups after the run, making sure he didn’t have any sort of cancer or disease his family doctor didn’t detect (he was fine).

Mark found out his blood type on the third day of tests (it was A), which probably was useful information. The nurses were appalled when he didn’t know his blood type. The nurse described it in the same way the Zodiac was used in Canada and the States. Mark was a man of science, not pseudoscience. Knowing it was an important thing to remember for medical emergencies, not for middle-aged women to fawn over his so-called ‘personality’. They then proceeded to call him stubborn and sensitive for not agreeing with them, something they claimed was  _ ‘such an A type thing to do.’  _

The cognitive tests were on the sixth day, Mark’s actual birthday. They were identical to the government regulated tests he got in Canada every three years. They went over basic math and skills, like things that were opposites and ‘how would this piece of paper look if we punched a hole into it?’ Mark finished them quickly and passed with flying colours. Chilhyun said he hadn’t seen anyone finish them so quickly except for one of the older subjects who was a prodigy at his university. 

After the cognitive test, Mark celebrated his birthday alone in his small room, singing ‘Happy Birthday’ quietly to himself. It was pitiful but he didn’t shed any tears. He knew his mother was going to call to talk to him and give her wishes and he wasn’t going to answer—he couldn’t. He couldn’t answer, he gave his cell phone to Chilhyun as per the rules of no contact with the outside world out of designated time and also blocked his mother’s number to prevent the numerous calls he was going to get. Mark was participating in the experiment and he wasn’t going to let his family stop him. 

His favourite test was the escape room. It happened on the twelfth day, early in the morning. The doctors claimed it was to test his problem solving skills in action. He was hooked up to heart rate monitors, eye tracking software and a breath rate monitor. It was very medical and Mark loved it. He finished the escape room in 40 minutes and 37 seconds, an average score. The fastest was done by Lee Donghyuck, who finished it in 19 minutes and 1 second. The slowest was Wong Yukhei, who finished it in a whopping 74 minutes and 11 seconds. 

Finally, after two weeks of tests, they officially started the experiment. Mark changed into a scratchy and stiff outfit of all white, instead of the black training clothing they had given him before. A video call for all participants was scheduled for noon and Mark was watching the analog clock tick down.

At 10:00:47, Mark started to pace the room. It was no bigger than his bedroom back in Canada, but there was only the medical chair, IV and the monitor in every room. He tried knocking on the walls to talk to the person next to him, but no one answered. He counted how many tiles were on the floor of the room (there was 79) and how many stitches were in the chair (he lost count after 273).

At 11:00:04, their lunch came. It was earlier than normal because of the call but Mark didn’t mind. He was getting up at 6:30 since he started his training and he was always hungry. The lunch was the same almost everyday, a plain sandwich with some sort of fruit, yogurt and a choice of fruit juice or milk. 

It was different today. Mark got a warm bowl of tomato soup, grilled cheese, a whole Mandarin orange and water. It surprised him when one of the nurses came in, struggling to keep the soup from overflowing. It was a little funny to watch him breathe in relief when he finally could set the tray down. Mark finished his food at 11:13 and continued to pace around.

At 11:50:00, one of the assistant researchers—a loud man named Lee Heechul—came by and brought a computer into the room. He explained Mark wasn’t to open the laptop until 12:00 or else. He was pretty sure he was joking, but Mark didn’t risk the chance..

At exactly 11:59:58, Mark opened the computer and got a Skype notification came just as quickly. He accepted the request and entered the call. His camera turned on and the other subjects entered the call.

“There’s twenty-one of us?! Oh, my God...wait, there’s  _ more _ ?!” Someone exclaimed in extremely broken Korean. To be fair, Mark’s Korean wasn’t great either, but this was a whole other level of brokeness.

A loud hush filled the call and everyone quieted down.

“I understand most of you are young, but please act like adults. Turn on your camera so everyone can see your face. You have to be able to see each other’s faces to have them in a mutual dream. Only the doctors are going to keep their cameras off,” Chilhyun’s voice rang through the call and everyone obeyed, turning their cameras on. As they popped up one by one, Mark noticed none of them looked particularly old. Mark couldn’t tell who was the oldest or who was the youngest.

Mark could only make out a few comments made: 

“There’s only men participating? This is sexist,” came from a black haired man with a narrow face; 

“You are all so handsome, wow,” came from a man with dark grey hair and michervious eyes;

“The dude with purple hair has resting bitch face,” came from the man with orange hair and tanned skin; 

“Shut up, whoever said that,” came from the purple haired man who didn’t look Korean.

“Quiet. Donghyuck, don’t say mean things about Yuta, please. You might be in the same dreamscapes and we don’t want anyone to start with ill-impressions of each other. And Doyoung, only men are able to participate in this experiment, don’t make assumptions and read the entire terms and conditions next time,” Chilhyun sighed and Mark could hear the annoyance drip from the lead researchers’ tone. Mark never thought the calm and patient man could sound so irritated. A few apologized waved across the call and Chilhyun let out a sound of approval.

“Today is the day. I’m just here to explain how this is all going to work. It’s a lot of medical jargon that most of you don't know, so I’m going to explain it the best I can,” Chilhyun started, “you will be hooked up to the IV’s and computer monitors like normal. Only one of you haven't done the dream training, simply because we didn’t have time but I’m not concerned. This time, though, we will be injecting you with a special serum to induce the mutual dreaming aspect.

“After the serum has run its course through your body, we will insert the USB into a specialized part of your IV. The USB contains bio-information that will let the IV inject a specialized mixture of melatonin and oxytocin into your body, along with nano-bots. It’s harmless and the nano-bots die after 24 hours, which means there’s a period of one day where a dream session won’t be happening. This is when we record first-hand information from those who were in the dream, instead of just taking it from the monitors.

“After you wake up, you might feel very ill, weak and sore. This is because the dreams can last anywhere from five minutes to a whole day when the nano-bots die. You wouldn’t have eaten in that time and muscles will have created lactic acid from inactivity. We’ve tested the serum on Do Kyungsoo, a nurse, and he was out for exactly 14 hours and 3 minutes. He got ill, but it’s like that with any use of anesthetics. We don’t expect you all to go to 24 hours, but some of you might, so be prepared for that.” The shuffling of papers came through the microphone and the sloshing of a liquid.

“Do any of you have questions?” Chilhyun asked and chaos broke loose. Dozens of questions were thrown at him and Mark turned down the computer. Chilhyun’s icon lit up, indicating he was speaking. Mark turned the volume back up and the lead researcher was in the midst of scolding the group for the second time.

“We’ll go in age order. Taeil?”

“No, sir.”

“Johnny?”

“Yeah, so there’s a chance we won’t be in the dreamscape, even if we are put under?” Johnny asked, brushing his brown hair back.

“Yes, but you won’t have any of the side effects. Taeyong?”

“No.”

“Yuta?”

“What happens if we can’t speak anything but our own language in our dream?” Yuta asked in a language Mark couldn’t recognize.

“Uh, I never thought of that. We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it,” another doctor translated Chilhyun into Yuta’s language, “Kun?”

“Mine was the same as Yuta’s.”

“Doyoung?”

“No questions.”

“Ten?”

“What are the chances we won’t wake up?” Ten asked and a silence fell over the call. Mark didn’t even think of that chance. Of course, there was always a risk involved with everything but he didn’t think of any of the awful ones.

Chilhyun broke the silence, “1%. Only 1% of the 600 rats we tested on didn’t wake up.”

“That’s still 6 rats.” The boy with orange hair piped up.

“Yes, but this experiment has been nearly a decade in the making. We will make sure you all wake up.”Chilhyun reassured them, but Ten didn’t look convinced.

“Let us continue, Jaehyun?”

“None.”

“Sicheng?”

“No.”

“Hendery?”

“Nope.”

“Jungwoo?”

“How do we get rid of the nano-bots?” A soft voice came from the man and he shook his grey hair. 

“I was waiting for this one. They dissolve and you pee them out.”

Jungwoo nodded, “Okay, thank you.”

“Lucas?”

“No, sir!”

“Ah, you are all making this easy on me. Renjun?”

“What will we do when we aren’t in the dreamscapes?”

“You will either stay in your room, talk to family or talk among those you have met in the dreams. Jeno?”

“No.”

“Donghyuck?”

“Ten asked my question already.”

“Jaemin?”

“No.”

“Yangyang?”

“It’s been answered.”

“Chenle?”

“Nope.”

“Jisung?”

“Nope.”

“Mark?”

“Uh, none right now.”

“Dejun?”

“No.”

Chilhyun turned on his camera, “Alright, then. I guess we should get started then. Please leave the call and sit into your chairs."


End file.
